CONTRIBUTORS - WOOD WORKS
Looking at Red Ivory
" Fantastic to work with ! Absolutely lovely to turn !" These are the comments by artistic wood turner John Wessels on working with Red Ivory wood , which is featured in this edition .
By Stephanie Dyer
Red Ivory tree . Image : iSpot
Since the early 20th century , much interest has been shown in this beautiful indigenous southern African wood , with its unique pink to red colour . It is extremely popular among wood turners , wooden jewellery makers and musical instrument makers , to name a few .
The scarcity and small size of this bushveld tree were soon realised when interest was shown in the possibility of marketing the species in South Africa and overseas for small ornamental articles . Today , much of the species ’ distribution range falls within public and private protected areas , making the wood generally inaccessible . This is not a bad situation as uncontrolled utilisation of this valuable resource could result in harvestable logs being completely unavailable .
Recovery of quality wood can be poor due to poor log shape . There is also generally a high proportion of sapwood and the centres of logs often have large cracks , radiating outwards . For these reasons , the wood is mainly used for the making of small , unique items .
The scientific name , Berchemia zeyheri was given to the tree in honour of French botanist Van Berchem ( 1720 to 1778 ) and Jean-Michel Zeyher ( 1770 to 1845 ), a botanist who collected plants in Africa .
The wood is known by the Zulu people in South Africa as ‘ Mutiwenkosi ’ ( tree of the chiefs ) and , according to folklore , may be cut only by the chief of a tribe and his sons . When a chief ’ s son can fell a tree and fashion a spear from the wood , he is considered to have reached manhood . No other member of the tribe is allowed to cut or possess the wood .
The heartwood ranges in colour from the palest pink to the deepest shades of red and the clearly defined outer sapwood is yellowish . The colour of the heartwood can be so startling that it appears artificial and looks as though it has been stained . Unfortunately , this colour changes gradually with exposure to sunlight to orange-brown and it is essential to apply a surface treatment that contains a UV filter to maintain the pinkish-red colour .
56 APRIL / MAY 2017 //